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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Who Do You Follow? (I Corinthians 1:10-17)

I was walking across a bridge one day,
and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. I immediately ran over
and said "Stop! Don't do it!"

"Why shouldn't I?" he said.

I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"

"Like what?"

"Well ... are you religious or atheist?"

"Religious."

"Me too! Are you Christian or Jewish?"

"Christian."

"Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?"

"Protestant."

"Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?"

"Baptist."

"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of
the Lord?"

"Baptist Church of God."

"Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you
Reformed Baptist Church of God?"

"Reformed Baptist Church of God."

"Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of
1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?"

"Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!"

To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.

So, who do you follow?

We do not live in a large community,
but we are a community of seven churches . . . approximately a church for every
one hundred people on the census.Even
for a community of our size we have a nice variety of churches from which to
choose when it comes time to worship.We’ve got the Baptists, Wesleyans, Lutherans, Catholics, Episcopalians,
Christians, and those who meet in the backyard of Micah’s house. If you ask
anyone from our community, they will tell you that they are associated with
some church within the confines of the community.It is kind of funny how we have one God, but
thirty-two flavors of that one God . . . and, people pick their favorite flavor
. . . and, people defend their favorite flavor and usually—though they would
never say it out loud—distain the flavors of other people.Everybody likes their flavor the best.

So it was for those who were in the
congregation in Corinth when they called for the help of the Apostle Paul . . .
everyone had their favorite flavor and really did not care for the flavors of
anyone else.It created a whole lot of
animosity within the congregation to the point that there was the threat of
violence and the downfall of the congregation.Thus the apostle rides to the rescue and attempt to knock some common
sense into the warring factors of the Corinth church.

The problem had to do with, well,
flavors . . . some of the people liked the way Apollos shared the gospel . . .
some liked the way that Cephas shared the gospel . . . still, some liked the
way that Paul shared it . . . while others, stuck to the original version which
was Jesus.They all liked their flavors
and expected everybody else to like them too.Of course, not everyone likes the same flavor . . . and, no one
appreciated being made to do something they don’t want to do.Thus quarrels broke out . . . and, we all
know how nasty church fights can get.If
they all had their way, they would push the dissenters off the bridge and be
done with them.The only problem is
there would be no one left.

Paul poses a simple a question: who do you follow?Paul explains that it was not Apollos,
Cephas, or even himself that was crucified for them . . . nor were any of them
baptized in their names.No, it was
Jesus who died on a cross . . . it is in Jesus’s name that they were baptized .
. . and, it is the “good news” of Jesus that these individuals were called to
share.It was not their “word”, but the
“word” of Jesus.The bottom line is that
the only person that should be followed is Jesus himself . . . they are to be
the followers of Jesus and only Jesus . . . and, on that they should agree.

For a while we have been witnessing a
great exodus from the organized church . . . from denominations.The figures do not lie, the church as it has
always seemed to be . . . is dying.We
have heard that there are more of those who are “spiritual” and spurn organized
religion, than there are those who claim to be “religious” and attend many
forms of organized religion.Again, the
statistics and numbers prove this fact to be true.All of us gathered here this morning can
probably name off a list of excuses of why our friends and families do not
attend church . . . chiefly it would be that they do not like all the rules and
regulations of how churches run themselves . . . or, that the church is too
political . . . too divisive.As a
pastor, I have heard everything . . . but, like the Apostle Paul, I would say, who do you follow?

Sadly, what I often hear in return is
not Jesus.I hear a particular
denomination . . . I’m a Catholic . . . I’m a Baptist . . . I’m a Methodist . .
. I’m a Christian.Or, I hear a
particular minister or ministry . . . Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, Joel
Olsteen, Billy Graham, Rick Warren, Rob Bell, or even . . . heaven forbid . . .
John Keener!I also hear particular
theological bents on the answer . . . evangelical, missional, liberal,
conservative, and feminine just to name a few that are floating around out
there.I hear everything but Jesus!Listen to the way that people respond to that
question, and you will know who they are truly following.

It is here that division begins.When the focus is lost . . . when the
faithful are no longer using Jesus as the baseline, but others and their
understandings of Jesus and the Good News.When the focus is lost on what Jesus asked his followers to do . . . to
love God completely and to love one another . . . to go out into the world and
serve . . . to be the presence of Jesus in the world.When that is lost, the faithful are no longer
following Jesus, they are following something else.

The church today is probably not very
far off from what the Apostle Paul was confronted with in Corinth.The church today is pretty splintered and far
from being what Jesus imagined it should be . . . at least that is my
guess.I think that at some point in the
history of the church the faithful wandered off from what Jesus asked of his
followers . . . and, because of that, we are witnesses to what we are seeing
today . . . the demise of the church as we know it.Some may say that it is dying, but I don’t
think it is.I don’t think it is because
it has made the faithful stop, pray, and begin to discern who it is really
supposed to follow . . . I hear a call to go back to the foundation . . . to go
back to Jesus . . . his words and his actions.And, it is slowly happening . . . the church is not dying, it is going
through growing pains as it grows towards what Jesus called all of his
followers to . . . the Kingdom of God.The Kingdom of God where all love the Lord completely, and they love one
another.

We are called to follow Jesus.Despite the fact that there are seven
churches in this community . . . all seven can agree on that foundation piece .
. . we are to follow Jesus.It is there
that we find our commonality . . . where we find our unity . . . where we are
not divided.What we are dealing with is
not what Jesus died for . . . the sooner we realize it, the closer we get to
the Kingdom.It won’t be easy, but if we
are truly the followers of Jesus . . . we know that it can be done.Amen.